Royalty star photographers Roger Fenton and Julia Margaret Cameron enter Blackwell House

Exhibition: Roger Fenton and Julia Margaret Cameron: Early British Photographs from the Royal Collection, Blackwell, The Arts and Crafts House, Blackwell, until April 27 2011

Despite having careers spanning little more than a decade during the mid-19th century, Roger Fenton and Julia Margaret Cameron were pioneers who made vital impacts upon the field they loved.

After appearing in a show at the Society of the Arts in 1852, Fenton was introduced to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at the inaugural exhibition of the Photographic Society, heading to the Royal residences several times in the 1850s to produce pictures of the family, who also bought several of his commercial shots of Windsor Castle and the surrounding parkland.

The interest the Queen held in photography is the focus of this exhibition – she was enamoured by Cameron’s powerful, wistful portraits of sitters she felt had attained heroic status through their achievements, capturing leading artists and writers of the time.

Cameron was a late starter, only embarking on her photographic career when her daughter gave her a camera at the age of 48, but her laboriously considered, moodily atmospheric shots are in outstanding condition thanks to the care she took in archiving them.

Twenty-two works by Fenton and Cameron feature in this show, taken from the Royal Photograph Collection. They debut at Blackwell before going on tour.